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RELATIONS OF STATES. 



SPEECH 



OF THE 



Hon. James Chesnttt, Jr. 

OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 

§t\imt& in tto $tmtt ai ifte InU^l gteUt, 
.April 9 5 1860, 



ON THE 



Resolutions submitted by the Hon, Jefferson Davis, of Miss. 

On 1st March, 1860. 




Baltimore . . Printed by John Murphy & Co. 

Publishers, Booksellers, Printers & Stationers, 

Marble Building, 182 Baltimore street. 
1860. 



RELATIONS OF STATES. 



The Senate resumed the consideration of the following Resolutions, 
submitted by Mr. Davis, on the 1st of March: 

1. Resolved, That, in the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the States adopt- 
ing the same acted severally as free and independent sovereignties, delegating a por- 
tion of their powers to he exercised by the Federal Government for the increased 
security of each against dangers, domestic as well as foreign; and that any inter- 
meddling hy any one or more States, or by a combination of their citizens, with the 
domestic institutions of the others, on any pretext whatever, political, moral, or 
religious, with a view to their disturbance or subversion, is in violation of the Con- 
stitution, insulting to the States so interfered with, endangers their domestic peace 
and tranquility — objects for which the Constitution was formed — and, by necessary 
consequence, tends to weaken and destroy the Union itself. 

2. Resolved, That negro slavery, as it exists in fifteen States of this Union, com- 
poses an important portion of their domestic institutions, inherited from their ances- 
tors, and existing at the adoption of the Constitution, by which it is recognized as 
constituting an important element in the apportionment of powers among the States ; 
and that no change of opinion or feeling on the part of the non-slaveholding States 
of the Union, in relation to this institution, can justify them, or their citizens, in 
open or covert attacks thereon, with a view to its overthrow; and that all such 
attacks are in manifest violation of the mutual and solemn pledge to protect and 
defend each other, given by the States respectively on entering into the constitutional 
compact which formed the Union, and are a manifest breach of faith, and a violation 
of the most solemn obligations. 

3. Resolved, That the union of these States rests on the equality of rights and 
privileges among its members; and that it is especially the duty of the Senate, which 
represents the States in their sovereign capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate 
either in relation to persons or property in the Territories, which are the common 
possessions of the United States, so as to give advantages to the citizens of one State 
which are not equally assured to those of every other State. 

4. Resolved, That neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature, whether by direct 
legislation, or legislation of an indirect and unfriendly character, possess power to 
annul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to take 
his slave property into the common Territories, and there hold and enjoy the same 
while the territorial condition remains. 

5. Resolved, That if experience should at any time prove that the judicial and 
executive authority do not possess means to insure adequate protection to constitu- 
tional rights in a Territory, and if the territorial government should fail or refuse to 
provide the necessary remedies for that purpose, it will be the duty of Congress to 
supply that deficiency. 

6. Resolved, That the inhabitants of a Territory of the United States, when they 
rightfully form a constitution to be admitted as a State into the Union, may then, for 
the first time, like the people of a State when forming a new constitution, decide for 
themselves whether slavery, as a domestic institution, shall be maintained or pro- 
hibited within their jurisdiction; and "they shall be received into the Union with or 
without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." 

1. Resolved, That the provision of the Constitution for the rendition of fugitives 
from service or labor, without the adoption of which the Union could not have been 
formed, and that the laws of 1T93 and 1850, which were enacted to secure its execu- 
tion, and the main features of which, being similar, bear the impress of nearly 
seventy y % ears of sanction by the highest judicial authority, should be honestly and 
faithfully observed and maintained by all who enjoy the benefits of our compact of 
union; and that all acts of individuals or of State' Legislatures to defeat the purpose 
or nullify the requirements of that provision, and the laws made in pursuance of it, 
are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their 
effect. 

Mr. CHESNUT. Mr. President, the resolutions introduced by the 
Senator from Mississippi are just, and therefore wise. In regard to the 



subjects of which they treat, they announce the true doctrine of the Con- 
stitution. Among other things, they denounce two capital political 
heresies : that which claims sovereign power for the Government, un- 
limited power over this subject ; and that which claims sovereign power 
for the inhabitants of a Territory. One leads straightway to despotism. 
The other, by yielding to usurpation, abandons the duty and abdicates 
the just authority of the Government. I oppose both. So entirely do 
I concur in the principles and the policy announced by the resolutions, 
that I had intended on this occasion to discuss them closely and fully ; 
but as they have been compassed already by my friend from Texas, 
[Mr. Wigfall,] who spoke the other day on this subject, and as I 
shall have much else to say, and may speak more directly hereafter, I 
will relieve the Senate from the pain of being carried over the same 
ground on those points, and address myself to some cognate matters in 
which the interests of the country are concerned. 

Since the first Monday of last December, notable scenes have been 
presented at the Federal Capitol. The representatives of the people of 
the States and the representatives of the States themselves, brought 
together under the provisions of a common Constitution, assembled 
here with excited feelings and opposing thoughts. The collisions thus 
produced have made manifest to the world the wide and growing 
estrangement between them. The opposing forces have had one angry 
conflict ; and now, each standing on its own gronnd, they present them- 
selves front to front with lowering aspect of distrust, discontent, and 
mutual hostility. Again, they are preparing for another, a fiercer, a 
grander, and, sir, can we hope a final struggle ? The smoke of the first 
encounter having passed away, it may be of some import to survey the 
field, and to explore calmly the causes which have brought us into this 
conflict. I enter upon this inquiry with no view to agitate, but I trust 
with the better motive of ascertaining and recognizing the truth ; that 
justice may prevail ; that the rights of each and the good of all may be 
secured. 

For the distracted condition in which the country is found, many 
causes have been assigned, varying and sometimes opposite, according 
to the predilections, prejudices and positions of those who observe. 
Domestic African slavery, as it exists in some of these States, is a cause 
very proximate for present irritation and disturbance ; but, sir, beyond 
this, there is yet another cause, which I have long noticed, which has 
been observed before, and which is of great force. It is the miscon- 
ception in most cases, in others the ignorance, of the relations of the 
States to each other, and of the Federal Government to the States ; in 
short, of our system of governments. But there is yet another cause 
underlying all. It is a false and fatal theory of society ; a mischievous 
misapprehension of the true relations of men to each other, to Govern- 
ment and to society. 

The vitality which is in the anti-slavery party arises out of this false 
theory, proceeds on this misapprehension. The life of their creed is 
the equality of all men of all races naturally, and therefore should be 
socially aud politically. Their system is theoretical, and altogether 
French, of the period of "victorious anarchy." These gentlemen seem 
to me to disregard the world as it is, and to ignore the lessons of expe- 
rience ; whereas the people of the South, and the Democratic party of 
the North, generally adopt different opinions. They regard man as he 



really is, not as presented by the imagination of idealists. They regard 
the races with their natural inequalities, varying capacities, and differing 
necessities. They believe that government, to exercise wisely the 
functions for which it was instituted on earth, must be of continual 
growth ; assuming such forms, and providing such laws, as the natural 
inequalities, varying capacities, and differing necessities of the distinct 
people upon whom it acts may from time to time require. With these, 
experience is the great teacher which holds the light, while reason 
applies such teaching to secure the steady advancement of society, and 
provides for the wants of its members. One is absolute theory, excogi- 
tated from the brain of the cyclopedists, resting on visions of dreamers, 
which all history proves to be unsteady, explosive, and destructive. 
Amid eternal confusion, it is ever busy in the endless task of dilapida- 
tion and reconstruction. The other view proceeds upon the laws of 
nature, and the experience of the world. It moves on the accumula- 
tion of well-tried facts, grouped by generalization, and imported into 
the ever-growing science of human government. It adopts a philoso- 
phy which insures steadiness, peace, and advancement. 

Here is a fundamental difference between us ; a conflict of ideas ; 
and according to the prevalence of one or the other must our system of 
government survive or perish. Now, sir, let us look into these causes, 
and see the practical bearing of them upon the condition of the country. 

The anti-slavery feeling and action of the North proceed from ^ a 
combination of elements. One is honest and earnest, though mis- 
guided, in which the understanding is narrowed by prejudice, and rea- 
son and judgment subservient to passion, wild, blind, self-righteous and 
reckless; this is fanaticism. Another party, embracing the mass, is 
unspeculative, though impressible. This, without being possessed of 
fanaticism, or perceiving the purpose and ruinous tendency of the com- 
bination, suffers itself to be drawn into the vortex to swell the power of 
a third and controlling element, which is purely political. This last 
seizes upon the other two and converts them to its own use, which is 
the attainment of political power. This combination now controls 
nearly every non-slaveholding State of the Union ; threatens to ingulf 
the Constitution, and sweep from the country every vestige of that great 
heritage which has been transmitted by a common ancestry. It con- 
stitutes the Republican party, as it is called, in this year of grace 18G0; 
and against such a power we must cry, " To your tents, oh ! Israel," 
and leave the issue to the God of battles. 

Let us examine what this party seeks to accomplish, by what means, 
and what will be the result if it succeeds. 

They seek the emancipation of the negro slaves in the United States 
—one portion directly and by force, if needs be ; the other by the longer 
way of circumvention. Both aim at the same end — the abolition of 
slavery in the United States. The relative proportion of these ele- 
ments cannot accurately be stated ; but I suppose it will be fair to 
assume that all those who are sympathizers of the notorious Brown, 
those who canonize his memory, and sing peans to his name and fame, 
are of the first class ; and the proof is that their numbers are great, 
The third element is more unquestionable iu shape and identity. _ We 
know it to be large, complete in organization, adroit and energetic in 
action. Those who compose it seek also to abolish slavery in the 
United States. They proclaim, however, that they do not intend to 



6 

interfere with slavery in the States, but, at the same time, declare their 
purpose to restrict it ; to prevent its expansion ; to exclude it from the 
Territories ; to hem it in, that increasing numbers may press upon the 
means of subsistence ; to make it, if they can, not only worthless, but 
burdensome ; to destroy its relations, and thus force the exodus of one 
or the other race from the regions they now occupy in the South. 

But this is a slow process. The general object is to be pressed on to 
a more rapid conclusion, if it can be done. Meanwhile, for this pur- 
pose, all the batteries of agitation are to play their ceaseless thunders. 
Pulpit politicians, pamphleteers, speech-mongers, and all the other 
howling elements of a hellish enginery, are to irritate, disturb, and 
endanger. The demon of civil discord, too, is to be invoked, that all 
the horrors may revel at the same time in the same infernal dance. 

Mr. President, let us suppose for a moment that abolition is accom- 
plished ; that its triumph has been gratefully celebrated by a grand 
libation of the blood of every slaveholder ; that the meek eyes of its 
advocates are glittering with satisfaction over the blighted fields and 
smoking ruins of a fiery desolation — and then ask, what is gained ? 
Ay, sir, that is a pregnant question, which the country may well heed. 

I will not speak of the dissipation of the sublime idea of a great and 
just Republic of confederated States covering a continent ; I will not 
speak of the annihilation of a nascent power looming up into such vast 
proportions that its shadow already covers the civilized earth ; nor of 
the abandonment of a high and holy trust ; nor of the injustice to the 
unborn millions that may follow ; nor of the hoarse jeers of reassured 
despotism, when we prove the incapacity of even civilized man for self- 
government. These are the themes of the orator, and to the orator I 
leave them. In this practical day, I will address myself to more mate- 
rial considerations. 

Who, then, will be benefited by the abolition of slavery in the United 
States ? No man, woman, or child, of any race, or of any condition. 
If any benefit can result from such an achievement, it will redound to 
the interest of foreign people and foreign power. Yes, sir, wittingly 
or unwittingly, the anti-slavery party of this day is laboring for the 
interests of foreign power and people, and against the interests of every 
laborer in the United States, free or slave, North or South, as I will 
attempt to show. 

If abolition be confined to the United States, what will be the result ? 
The first result will be such an enhanced price of the productions of 
slave labor elsewhere, consequent on the diminished supply, that those 
States then retaining slavery would bound forward with such power and 
prosperity as would be without a parallel, except in the instance of this 
country and a few others at the time England passed her emancipation 
act. Cuba and Brazil would be the beneficiaries of the first result. 
Under the combined influence of enhanced price and diminished sup- 
ply, there would follow a demand for more and cheap labor ; the Afri- 
can slave trade would be re-opened, for, under the condition of things 
which would exist on the abolition of slavery here, I doubt if there 
exists power enough in the world, even if the world were inclined to 
exert it, either to suppress or diminish it, It is most probable that, 
under such circumstances, the necessities of the world, even Central 
America and South America, would be brought to the adoption of the 
system of African slavery. If that should be done, it would strike down 



the proud preeminence of this Confederacy, and transfer the power of 
this continent further south. The first result then would be for the ben- 
efit of Spain and Brazil, or other countries having this institution. _ 

But suppose that, under the combined pressure of the other civilized 
powers of the earth, Spain and Brazil succumb to its influence, and 
emancipation at once became universal : what then would be the result ? 
Great Britain, with her skill, capital, energy, perseverance, and intelli- 
gence, commanding such vast regions in Africa, Asia, the East and 
West Indies, so well adapted to tropical productions, would command 
them all. Under the influence of enhanced price and diminished sup- 
ply, she would be able so to stimulate and establish her system of sla- 
very — her system of free labor, as she calls it, but slavery in fact — as to 
give her a virtual monopoly of all those productions. That would 
enable her retrieve the blunders of the past, and would replace her upon 
the throne. In the center of the world, reposing on conscious strength, 
without a rival or the fear of rivalry, she would again stretch her scepter 
through the earth and dominate the globe. The other countries of the 
world, and the United States more especially, dwarfed and humiliated, 
must thenceforth move at her will beneath the shadow of unquestioned 
power. Such would be the second result of the abolition of slavery. 
It redounds to the establishment of English power, the predominance 
of English commerce, the overshadowing, overwhelming power of that 
mighty Empire. Sir, that is the second result to which the efforts of 
the anti-slavery party tend. 

Mr. President, it is well to see what has been done on this subject. 
The emancipation of the slaves in the United States would not now be 
an experiment with us. Other nations in this century have led the way 
in that policy. Their example is before us for warning and instruction. 
If we are among those who cannot learn by experience, we must be 
given over to impending destruction. It is curious to observe how 
plainly written are the lessons of the past. Let us see what classes of 
persons, what arguments, what philosophy influenced the British Parlia- 
ment thirty years ago to abolish slavery in the West Indies. I ask leave 
to read from British authority — from the London Quarterly Review 
of 1831: 

" But the bulk of them really know nothing of the difficulties with which the sub- 
ject is surrounded. They are directed solely by abstract notions of justice and 
humanity, which cannot be denied to be among the best of all human incentives to 
action, when under the control of knowledge or discretion; but, when deprived of 
this salutary restraint, are among the most falacious guides it is possible to follow. 
They conceive it to be their duty, at all hazards, to rescue the African, whom they 
invariably paint to themselves as mild, tractable, and industrious, out of the hands 
of a master who is always represented as inhuman and oppressive; and imagine that 
as soon as the fiat of manumission shall have issued from the British Senate, the 
work of mercy will be perfect, and the reign of peace and happiness will begin. 
From the whole tenor of their words and action, it is evident that they neither know 
the facts, nor understand the grounds, upon which their opinions ought to be found- 
ed ; and like many other well meaning, but incompetent legislators, they stir up and 
promote innovations of which they are qualified neither by their habits nor by their 
acquirements to foresee the consequences, immediate or ultimate. 

"Next to these, we may advert to a small but compact phalanx of politicians, who 
affect a deep interest in the state of the negroes in the West Indies, and make com- 
mon cause with the Abolitionists, in order that they may be ushered into public 
place or public favor upon their shoulders. With them slavery may be regarded as 
a kind of stock in trade, and the woes of the sons of Africa are valuable— utpuris 
placeant, el declamatio fiat. On the hustings at elections, in halls and societies, at 
forenoon meetings, and in taverns, when toasts and speeches begin after dinner, 



8 

scarcely a single opportunity offers in which some orator or cfb r \^,°s not introduce 
the negroes, for the sole purpose of gaining the votes or favor ol i ..u infinitely better 
than himself, and with whose simplicity and credulity, as soon as he has taken his 
departure, he is delighted to make himself merry with his friends and associates." — 
Quarterly Review for 1831, vol. 45, p. 212. 

Such) Mr. President, was a description of the anti-slavery party, in 
1831, in England. Although it is mild in phrase, soft in coloring, yet 
it is clear and comprehensive in outline. How far it is a correct por- 
traiture of the anti-slavery party of this day, I leave to the world to 
determine ; but this I will say, that the party now is far less excusable, 
because it has had the benefit of experience, in the example of a fatal 
experiment. Let us now see what this party did for England, and what 
for the race emancipated. 

Anterior to the year 1808, Great Britain had the command of the 
productions of the tropical regions. In that year she abolished the 
slave trade. The diminution of cheap and abundant labor thus pro- 
duced lost her that command. Spain and Portugal seized the advan- 
tage, and stimulated the African slave trade, and, by procuring cheap 
and abundant labor, were soon enabled not only to rival but surpass 
Great Britain in tropical productions from Cuba and Brazil. The im- 
portance of gaining this command is strikingly set forth by a very able 
and eminent writer, from whom I will make some citations : 

"During [said McQueen] the fearful struggle of a quarter of a century, for her 
existence as a nation, against the power and resources of Europe, directed by the most 
intelligent but remorseless military ambition against her, the command of the pro- 
ductions of the torrid zone, and the advantageous commerce which that afforded, gave 
to Great Britain the power and the resources which enabled her to meet, to combat 
and to overcome her numerous and reckless enemies on every battle-field, whether by 
sea or by land, throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the fabled giant 
of antiquity. With her hundred hands she grasped her foes in every region under 
heaven, and crushed them with resistless energy." 

Again : 

"The increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign tropical possessions is become 
so great, and is advancing so rapidly the power and resources of other nations, that 
these are embarrassing this country [England] in all her commercial relations, in 
her pecuniary resources, and in all her political relations and negotiations." 

Under this state of affairs, the English people, the English statesman, 
became very keenly alive to the disadvantages they had suffered by this 
loss, and looked about for means to remedy the evils which they had 
produced. I quote again from Mr. McQueen : 

"If" * * * * "the cultivation of the tropical territories of other 
Powers be not opposed and checked by British tropical cultivation, then the interests and 
the power of such States will rise into a preponderance over those of Great Britain, 
and the power and the influence of the latter will cease to.be felt, feared, and respect- 
ed, amongst the civilized and powerful nations of the world." 

These citations from Mr. McQueen are taken from a recent publica- 
tion on colonization, by Dr. Christy. 

How to oppose and check the cultivation of the tropical territories 
of other Powers, and increase her own, became a question of prime im- 
portance. This could be done cither by an increase of cheap labor 
from abroad, or by increasing to the sufficient extent the productions of 
the labor already there. To reopen the African slave trade with Eng- 
land was impossible, and voluntary immigration from other countries 
could not be expected. The only resource left, therefore, was the in- 



y 



creased production, to a sufficient extent, of the laborers already there. 
This expect^' proceeded on the absurd idea that one free negro 
would product more thau two slaves. The stimulus of wages was to 
effect the result. But connected with this was the overcunning idea 
that, by proving slavery to be a great "economic error," the other 
Powers of the earth would abolish slavery everywhere, and Great 
Britain be thus enabled to retrieve the blunders which she had com- 
mitted, and regain the predominance which she had lost. Hence the 
emancipation act, which was consummated in 1838. The first fruits 
of that act are strikingly exhibited in the following, a table showing the 
condition of the islands, the exports in the several years of slavery, 
apprenticeship, and freedom : 



SUGAR EXPORTED 

from — 


Average of 

1S31, 1S32. and 1833, three 

years of shivery 


Average of 
1S35, 1836, and 1837, three 
years ot apprenticeship. 


Average of 

1S39, 1840, and 1841, threa 

years of freedom. 




23,400,000 lbs. 
18,923 tons. 
86,080 hhds. 


22,500,000 lbs. 
18,255 tons. 
62,960 hhds. 


14,100,000 lbs. 
14,828 tons. 
34,415 hhds. 








Total W. Indies, 


3,841,153 cwt. 


3,477,592 cwt. 


2,396,784 cwt. 











Statement showing the quantities of sugar producedin Jamaica in the years 1850, 1851, 
and 1852, compiled from official documents. 
Years. Sugar. 

1850 36,030 hhds. 

1851 40,293 " 

1852 34,414 " 

These tables show a decrease in all the colonies, Trinidad and Ja- 
maica particularly. In the case of Jamaica we have a more striking 
example. After a period of twenty-two years of freedom, and after all 
the efforts of the mother country in favor of the planters of that colony, 
to stimulate the free negroes to production, we have the result of the 
same product now, diminished a little from what it was in 1839 — the 
year after the emancipation of the slaves. 

But, sir, as time passed on, this insufficiency and comparative deca- 
dence of free labor was made more and more apparent, as I have tables 
here to show ; but I will not fatigue the Senate by reading anything 
except such matters as I desire to group from them, for the purpose of 
sustaining the argument. I have caused to be prepared with great 
care, from reliable sources, and from one thoroughly conversant with 
this branch of knowledge, a complete statistical table, showing the 
whole relations of this subject, which I will append to my remarks. 

Thus, Mr. President, the theory so pompously postulated, of the 
superiority of free-negro labor over that of the slave, was exploded. It 
proved a signal failure. Then resort was had to apprentices and 
coolies — a system cruel, and far less excusable than the one which ex- 
isted before the emancipation of the African slaves in the colonies. _ To 
repair the mischiefs occasioned under the impulsions of a false philan- 
thropy, the British Government blundered still further into measures 
which served only to aggravate the evil. For that purpose, it gave a 
monopoly to the free-grown sugar of the West India Islands, in order 
that the" planters might be able to give higher wages to their free 
negroes, and thus stimulate the negroes to greater production. But, 
sir, this failed. The only effect was an enormous and unnecessary tax 



10 

upon the English people ; and, according to the authority of Mr. Por- 
ter in his work entitled " Progress of the Nation," the increased cost on 
account of the diminished supply, to the people of England in a single 
year, for the sugar they consumed, was over twenty-five million dollars; 
and in six years it amounted to about fifty million. This is a preg- 
nant fact, and I shall have occasion again to advert to it. 

It is now conceded, by all who have examined this subject with any 
impartiality, that the abolition or emancipation of slaves in the West 
Indian Islands has proved most disastrous in its effects upon the com- 
mercial predominance of the British empire. In fact, England is now 
dependent mainly on the slave labor of other nations for her supply of 
all those tropical productions which she had before, almost without 
competition, furnished to the various markets of the world. 

This much, Mr. President, has it done for England. Now let us see 
what abolition will do for the slaves emancipated, by showing what it 
has done. I beg leave to read an extract on that point. This extract 
is from a colonial magazine in the " Gazetteer of the World :" a descrip- 
tion of the people of Hayti under the black Emperor. I will thank my 
friend to read it for me. 

Mr. Wigfall read as follows. 

"So jealous are the swarthy inhabitants of those rights which they have acquired, 
that every white man is viewed with suspicion; and, to prevent his gaining any 
degree of superiority, he is placed under a variety of disabilities. White men may 
reside on the island, but they are expressly forbidden to purchase land, or even to 
inherit any such permanent property, in what manner soever it might have been 
acquired. A white merchant may import cargoes, and ship them off to other islands; 
but the produce of the country is placed under an interdiction, and secured from his 
unhallowed touch. He may procure a livelihood by his labor ; but the merchandise 
which he is permitted to import he dares not sell as a retailer. He is viewed as a 
being who is degraded from his forfeited rank in society ; and the descendants of his 
father's slaves exact from him that homage which his progenitors once extorted from 
their ancestors. Among the lower orders the intercourse between the sexes is almost 
promiscuous ; not one, scarcely, out of a hundred knows anything about marriage. 
For a man to have as many women as he can procure, is tolerated by law and sanc- 
tioned by established custom. Among these domestic hordes quarrels frequently 
happen; and when they occur, the man takes his departure with indifference, leaving 
the women and children to load his memory with reproaches, and to provide for 
their own support. No provision is made by law for the maintenance of the poor ; 
and this furnishes a reason why legislative authority has never interposed in these 
departments of domestic life. Residing in a climate which seems congenial to demi- 
nakedness, they view clothing as an article of subordinate consideration ; and while 
they can procure plantains and a little fish, they feel but little solicitude for other 
food. In this state of indolent tranquility and moral depravity, bearing a striking 
resemblance to that of the aboriginal inhabitants, many thousands spend their days 
with hut very few anticipations either of time or eternity. Among the higher orders 
vice has not resigned her dominion ; polygamy is not considered as dishonorable, 
and other modes of life are scarcely branded with the name of sensuality." 

Mr. CHESNUT. I will ask leave also to submit information which 
I have procured from those having charge of the commercial relations 
of the country as to the condition of Jamaica, showing the condition of 
the free negroes there, as follows : 

" It appears that the colored people are not satisfied with a bare equality of civil 
and political rights, but aspire to their exclusive enjoyment. Not content with ac- 
quiring lands by free sale and purchase, and by squatting on tracts which twenty 
years ago were valuable plantations, though now abandoned to the first comer, they 
wish to force the proprietors of the estates still under cultivation to dispose of the 
remains of their property exclusively in favor of the ' colored sons of the soil ;' me- 
nacing the colony, in the event of continued recusancy, with the fate of Hayti. 



11 

" For many years the negroes have enjoyed all those advantages over the whites 
which are the unavoidable result of their numerical superiority in a country governed 
under a very liberal representative constitution. Negroes and mulattoes fill a ma- 
jority of public offices; and if there are still some of the most important places held 
by whites, it is, in some cases, because the incumbents date from a period antecedent 
to the emancipation ; and in others, because individuals of the fashionable color, with 
any like the indispensable qualifications of a mental character, are not readily found. 
Whenever they do possess some education and ability they obtain a preference. I do 
not say that this is the deliberate policy of the British Government and its represen- 
tatives here. It may well be the natural consequence of the predominance of the col- 
ored people at the hustings and in the Legislature — the colonial government being 
what is here called " parliamentary." 

"The little influence and respectability retained by the whites being derived from 
their superior wealth and intelligence, the leading spirits among the 'colored party' 
have always endeavored to effect the overthrow of the former at the expense of the 
agricultural and commercial interests of the island ; and, with that view, have either 
legislated against property, or refused to legislate when protection was required, and 
as magistrates, have used all their authority in favor of vagrancy and crime ; all in 
the hope of driving away the remaining whites. In the fulfilment of this scheme 
their progress has been wonderful, yet too gradual to comport with their impatience. 
Its originators are growing old, and some of them, like Moses, have died before en- 
tering the promised land. A number of whites still cling to their professions here, 
as drowning wretches catch at straws. Hence the wrath of the colored politicians, 
which occasionally swells too high to be restrained by prudential considerations." * * 

" I wish it were in my power in a few words, without dwelling too long on a most 
unpleasant subject, to convey to you an adequate idea of the poverty, misery, and 
degradation which the emancipation of the slaves has brought upon a country which 
the anti-slavery papers in the United States basely represent as an example for emu- 
lation. I cannot think of these shameless falsehoods without feeling an indignation 
which it would ill become me to express in adequate language." * * * * 
"lam induced to bring the subject before the department by observing in the colo- 
nial newspapers, extracts from some anti-slavery publication respecting Jamaica, 
which have recently appeared in the United States. 

" Nothing can be more untrue than the supposition that the idle, dissolute, and 
criminal population of Kingston presents an unfavorable contrast to that of the 
country. 

" In the interior, where the whites are thinly scattered, the police insufficient, where 
example for good is wanting, where the means of subsistence for man in his savage 
state is abundantly provided by the liberal hand of nature, the negroes give them- 
selves up to African idleness, obscenity, and vice, without the shadow of restraint 
which exists in towns ; and disease, the consequence of their crimes and carelessness, 
is gradually felling their numbers." 

"I have just returned from a visit in the parish of Metcalfe, one of the most fertile, 
and once one of the most flourishing agricultural districts of the island. I spent 
some days on what was once a coffee plantation, producing from seventy to one hun- 
dred hogsheads of coffee. It is now overgrown with wood and almost impenetrable 
jungle, the exuberant production of a fertile soil abandoned to the culture of nature." 

" From the property referred to may be seen coffee plantations, or rather the ruined 
mansions of five abandoned coffee plantations, which once gave an income to their 
respective owners of from two to five thousand pounds a year. Not a coffee tree 
is now cultivated in the district; the proprietors have gone; some of them are in 
great poverty in England ; some of them have died beggars; and others have left the 
country, or sunk into obscurity somewhere — no one knows what has become of them. 

" Their successors, the negroes, with abundance of the finest possible soil around 
them, which they can cultivate for their own profit, live in squalid idleness, preferring 
to sleep in the sun and satisfy the cravings of hunger with wild fruits, to the easy 
labor required for the cultivation of garden vegetables — articles now in great demand, 
at high prices, in the towns. Such is the dearth there, of every article requiring the 
most trifling exertion of forethought and industry, that I was compelled to bring from 
Kingston a horse loaded with American corn, intended for the food of the animal on 
which I rode, as well as his own consumption." * * * 

" This island, like Trinidad and British Guiana, is about to set on foot a plan of 
immigration from India, and perhaps China, in order to supply the deficiency of la- 
bor suffered by agriculturists. There could not be a better proof of the worthlessness 
of the negro as a free laborer. No such deficiency existed prior to the emancipation, 
although twice the number of estates now worked were then in full cultivation, and 
although the present agricultural and other industrial products of the island are but 



12 

a third of what they then were. You will understand the cause of the deficiency of 
labor now unquestionably existing, when informed that the laborers of the plantations 
have not yet turned out for work since the first of the month, having been all this 
time engaged in celebrating the anniversary holidays of their emancipation, and 
that, after last Christmas, no work was done on the plantations until the middle of 
February. By the last mentioned holidays, the planters, it is estimated, lost a fourth 
of their* crops, owing to the diminution of saccharine matter in the canes and the 
ravages of the cane rats. 

"The traveler who lands in any of the seaport towns of Jamaica finds a collection 
of ruins whose extent alone indicates the seat of former prosperity. 

"These traces of civilization are gradually disappearing in a jungle composed of 
the cactus opuntia, the gigantic cactus tuna, called by the Spaniards Higuero del de 
monio, or 'fighter of the Devil,' and the equally formidable acacia tortuosa. Fortu- 
nately, we have no beast of prey in the Island, and these jungles harbor nothing 
worse than flocks of vultures and the legion of unclean spirits generated by malaria. 
Amidst this desolation swarms a populace of negroes whose filthy looks and habits 
idleness, open vice, noisy and demonstrative obscenity, beggar description, and can- 
not even be conceived by those who have not visited Jamaica. The authorities pun- 
ish thefts and violent crimes when these are brought to light ; but with these excep- 
tions, there is no restraint on the brutal propensities of the lower classes. White 
females living here must accustom themselves to sights and language which, in 
America, men would scarcely tolerate. 

"The main edible resource of our idle population is the fruit of the mango — marir- 
ffifera indica — which grows wild now in every part of the island, not above an alti- 
tude of two thousand feet, although its first introduction here is within the memory 
of many old persons. 

"In the mango season, the lands belonging to the Duke of Buckingham, at Hope, 
which twenty years ago were a magnificent sugar estate, supply the means of sus- 
taining an indolent, yet miserable destitute existence. The owner of a large estate, 
near Kingston, some years ago, destroyed all the mango trees on his lands in the 
hope that, deprived of the mainstay of idleness, his tenantry would be compelled by 
necessity to earn a little money. 

"The mango season is followed by that of the sweet sap — annona squamosa— which 
also, most unhappily, affords the means of indulging in the idleness, which the negro 
seems to cherish above every other sensual enjoyment. 

"Such are the free citizens ; or rather, I should say, this is a feeble attempt to con- 
vey to you an idea of the degraded state of the inhabitants of this island. It is 
wonderful to what an extent the public mind in England and in America is deceived 
with respect to the result of negro emancipation, notwithstanding the notorious de- 
cadence of this colony, in an economic point of view." * * * * "The ruin of 
colonial agriculture and trade is denied whenever the class addressed is sufficiently 
ignorant to swallow the falsehood ; or, when a part of the truth is already known, 
artfully imputed to the whites. 

"No" candid person, even the most inveterate generalize^ who scorns to consider 
the question from an economical point of view, could remain attached to the anti- 
slavery party after a visit to Jamaica. He would learn from beholding the result of 
British interference in the affairs of this country, the prudence of leaving to those 
communities which suffer, or suppose to suffer, under bad institutions, the exclusive 
care of providing a remedy in accordance with their experience." 

Mr. CHESNUT. Now, Mr. President, by way of accumulation of 
evidence against the wisdom and humanity of the anti-slavery party in 
their efforts, I beg leave also to read a portion of a communication from 
Tunis, dated June 26, 1859 : 

"Perhaps there is no country besides this, wherein so much misery exists— at least 
one-half the population (one million) are miserably fed and clothed, yet the poor are 
taxed the same as the rich, to pay which often a hundred fold is taken ; or when no 
property, the bastinado, and prison starvation, must be their lot. Yet the philan- 
thropist has traversed this land, shut his eyes to the miseries of his own color, and 
having taken the negro to his special keeping— prevailed upon the Bey to abolish 
slavery, and at one dash thousands of human beings have been cast into a state of 
wretchedness and want, who were unacquainted with it before; and thousands, too 
added to the already naked, hungry, and houseless millions. Having accomplished 
this much, the philanthropist took his flight, perhaps to America, where, in his 
fanaticism, he may make more wretched the condition of the negro." 



lo 

Thus, Mr. President, thrice have we seen the foul fiend appear. In 
contempt of human experience, and in mockery of Divine authority, it 
comes with words of angelic grace upon its lips, and the flaming fires 
of hell in its hands. Wheresoever it touches the earth, blight and 
desolation mark its train. Bright promises always herald its advent ; 
but the echo of its departing footsteps ever mingles with the rising wail 
of human woe. When will vain man be taught by experience? or im- 
pious ignorance bow to the wisdom of God's decrees ? 

Mr. Presideut, we have seen what this spirit has accomplished for 
England ; what it has accomplished for the race emancipated. Now 
let "us see what it would do for the United States if the anti- slavery 
party can succeed. Let us regard this matter in relation to the northern 
States— the free States as they are called— first in a commercial aspect, 
and then in its effects on the industrial classes, the honest, hard-working 
men and women of the country. 

I find from official authority that the exports of the country in the 
year 1859, excluding specie, were $278,392,082. Of these, the 

Free States furnished exclusively 35,281,091 

Free and Slave States together 84.417. 4:i.-i 

Slave States exclusively 188,693,496 

It is stated that one third of that eighty-four million justly belongs 
and should be credited to slave labor, or to the slave States, as they are 
called. Thus the value of the exports for the year 1859, from the slave- 
holding States, would be over two hundred million dollars. 

The commercial and navigating interest of the country, which is 
almost entirely at the North,"feeds, lives, and fattens on these exports. 
To what extent these branches of industry are involved, would be a 
question of interest to those who are concerned. But, sir, in times 

past in 1788— there were some wise men in New England, as there 

are some now. They understood this business ; and I will ask to read 
from the debates of the Massachusetts convention, showing to what 
extent they regarded their interest involved in the carrying of the 
southern productions. I will ask my friend to read for me from Elliott's 
Debates, volume 2. 

Mr. Wigfall read, as follows : 

' 'But it is not onlv our coasting: trade — our whole commerce is going to ruin. Con- 
gress has not had power to makeeven a trade law, which shall confide the importa- 
tion of foreign goods to the ships of the producing or consuming country. If we had 
such a law, we should not go to England for the goods of other nations ; nor would 
British vessels be the carriers of American produce from our sister States. In the 
States southward of the Delaware, it is agreed that three fourths of the produce are 
exported, and three fourths of the returns are made, in British vessels. It is said 
that for exporting timber, one half the property goes to the carrier ; and of the pro- 
duce in general, it has been computed that, when it is shipped for London from a 
southern State to the value of $1,000,000, the British merchant draws from that sura 
$300,000 under the names of freight and charge. This is money which belongs to 
the New England States, because we can furnish the ships as well as and much better 
than the British."— Extract from the speech of Mr. Dawes, in the Massachusetts conven- 
tion, Elliott's Debates on the Federal Constitution, vol. 2, p. 58. 

Mr. CHESNTJT. Also a short extract from the speech of Mr. 
Philips, a member from Boston : 

"But we seethe situation we are in. We are verging towards destruction, and 
every one must be sensible of it. I suppose the New England States have a treasure 
offered to them better than the mines of Peru : and it cannot be to the disadvantage 
of the southern States, Great Britain and France come herewith their vessels, instead 
of our carrying our produce to those countries in American vessels, navigated by our 



14 

citizens. When I consider the extensive sea-coast there is to this State alone, so well 
calculated for commerce, viewing matters in this light, I would rather sink all this 
continent owes me, than this power should be withheld from Congress." — Ibid, p. 67. 

There was a Mr. Russell in that convention, who seemed to have a 
very lively conception of the benefits of this trade. After showing that 
the carrying trade would increase the navigation interests of New Eng- 
land, furnish a nursery of seamen, give employment to the people, &c, 

'"these (he said) were some of the blessings he anticipated from the adoption of 
the Federal Constitution; and so convinced was be of its utility and necessity, that 
while he wished that, on the grand question being put, there might not be one dis- 
senting voice, if he was allowed, he would hold up both hands in favor of it ; and 
he concluded, if his left hand was unwilling to be extended with his right, in this all- 
important decision, he would cut it off as unworthy of him, and lest it should infect 
his whole body."— Ibid, pp. 139, 140. 

If you take the estimate furnished by Mr. Dawes, of one-third, you 
would have as the profit of freight some $66,000,000 annually; but this 
is toe large, for the North would not get it all. I have a closer and 
more correct estimate, which shows that the freight for the exportation 
of the produce of slave labor by the ships of the North amounts to 
$36,000,000 annually. If you add the $150,000,000 in value which the 
Northern States sell in manufactured articles to the South, or if you 
include the West, with another $50,000,000, you have $200,000,000 that 
the Northern States sell annually to the South, the slave States, which 
slave labor enables them to buy. Add, also, the profits of the coasting 
trade, which are very great, and of which the North has a monopoly, 
and then superadd the bonus of $50,000,000 annually which is derived 
from the imposition of tariffs upon us, which enhances the price of their 
manufactures to that amount, and you may have some conception of the 
importance of slavery and of the South to the people of the North. 

Destroy these resources, and what becomes of the shipping, manufac- 
turing, mercantile parts of your States, and of the vast interests depend- 
ent on them ? One cannot, fail to see at a glance. Now let us regard 
its effects on the industrial classes, individually, the honest, hard-work- 
ing men and women of the country. There are three articles of tropical 
production, chiefly of slave labor, which touch very closely the necessi- 
ties and comforts of the laboring people of this country, and those are 
sugar, coffee and cotton. The sugar consumed in the United States for 
the fiscal year 1858-59, was: 

Of cane, by slave labor 950,697,863 lbs. 

byfree labor 42,153,017 " 

Domestic Maple, and from Pacific, (free,) 79,520,000 " 

1,072,370,880 " 
Strike off slave-grown sugar 950,697,863 " 

And there will be left 121,673,017 " 

to supply the wants of the country, and would be about one-tenth of 
the necessary quantity. Nearly two-thirds of this would be maple 
sugar. But if we regard the cane sugar alone — which is that chiefly fit 
for general use — and strike out that produced by slave labor, you will 
have about one twenty-fifth the quantity left in the country to supply its 
demand. 

What effect that would have upon the enhanced price of this article, 
which has become such a necessity as well as a luxury to the people, and 
how far it would be put out of the reach of the poor and laboring man, 



15 

one may well imagine. We may form some idea, however, by referring 
to the condition of England in 1840. I quote from Porter's Progress 
of the Nation, page 547 : 

" The cost to the people of this country [England] of the differential duty on sugar, 
imposed for the benefit of the English sugar colonies, had become extremely burden- 
some. The cost, exclusive of duty, of three millions seven hundred and sixty-four 
thousand seven hundred and ten hundred weight retained for consumption in 1840, 
was £9,156,872, if calculated at the Gazette average prices. The cost of a like quan- 
tity of Brazil or Havana sugar, of equal quality, would have been £4,141,181 ; and, 
consequently, we paid in one year £5,015,691 (over twenty five million dollars) more 
than the price which the inhabitants of other countries in Europe would have paid 
for an equal quantity of sugar. This, however, is an extreme view of the case. If 
our markets had been open at one rate of duty to the sugar of all countries, the price 
of foreign sugar would have been somewhat raised, while that from the British pos- 
sessions would have been lowered; but it may be confidently said that, even in that 
case, the saving would have been more than four millions of money." 

Thus, on a diminution of about one-eighth of the supply, the cost was 
more than double. What the cost or increase of price would be with 
only one twenty-fifth of the supply in the country, I leave Senators to 
imagine. 

The article of coffee furnishes a condition of things not less striking. 
The amount produced in the world, in the year 1859, was : 

From slave labor 422,000,000 lbs. 

From free labor 320,000,000 " 

Total 742,000,000 " 

Amount of coffee consumed in the U. States, in 1859, 223,882,850 
lbs. ; say, one-third less than the whole production of free labor. Strike 
out the production of slave labor, and you leave a little more than 
enough to supply one single country. What would be the price of cof- 
fee, occasioned by a diminished supply of more than one-half, Senators 
may well imagine, from what I have said in relation to the condition of 
affairs in England, in 1840, touching the cost of sugar. These two 
articles may then be considered as beyond the reach of the every-day 
and hard laborer, when you abandon the products of slave" labor. 
In relation to cotton, it is still more striking. 

The amount produced in the world in 1858-59, not including local 
consumption, except in the United States, was, by slave labor : 

Bales. 

United States, 3,851,481 

Brazil, 125,000 

3,976,481 
By free labor : 

East Indies 510,000 

Egypt 101,000 

West Indies 7,000 

618,000 

Total, 4,594,481 

Consumption for same period : 

United States, north of Virginia, 760,218 

Elsewhere in United States, 167,433 



927,651 
The remainder is consumed in other parte of the world. 



16 

Strike off that produced by slave labor, and the supply will not be 
sufficient even for the northern market. 

Then strike out this article of cotton, with which shivering humanity 
is enabled to clothe itself abundantly with decency and cheapness, and 
cease to consume the seven hundred and fifty thousand bales in your 
factories in the North, and thereby destroy the investments for that 
purpose, by which you are enabled to make profits and pay wages to 
the thousands dependent on them, and what becomes of the power, the 
prosperity, the respectability of your States ? Your commerce gone, 
your ships decayed, your industry paralyzed, your people unemployed, 
or, if employed at all, pressed to the maximum of labor with the mini- 
mum of wages, and thus deprived of the easy means of procuring the 
necessities and comforts of life : cursed by fanaticism, anarchy and deso- 
lation comes upon you; ruin, grim ruin, glares over your unhappy 
land — and why ? Why do the anti-slavery party pursue a course so 
remorseless and destructive? Is it because slavery is a sin? Sir, it 
does not concern them under the provisions of our Constitution ; they 
have naught to do with it, their intermeddling is self-righteous and in- 
sufferable ; but if it be a sin, it concerns us much. I meet them upon 
the highest ground. Why is it a sin ? Do you say it is against the 
law of nature, which is the will of God ? How do you get at the will 
of God in this particular ? Do you go to His revealed word ? Then 
I say to you, search the Scriptures, for they were written for your in- 
struction, and if you pursue your inquiries in a spirit of truth, I have 
no doubt that your philosophy will be mended, and that your country 
and the world will be greatly benefitted by your conversion. Consider 
the theocracy of the Jews, and the institution of slavery under it. But 
do you take refuge in the new dispensation ? I say to you again, search 
the Scriptures, and among the other numberless good things that you 
there will find I commend to your consideration the case of Onesimus, 
in the hands of the Apostle Paul. But if you go outside of the revealed 
word and say you look for it in the laws of nature, then I know of but 
one mode in moral questions by which you can arrive at it. God wills 
the happiness of mankind. Any human institution or human action 
which destroys the happiness of mankind is against the will of God. 
Any human institution or human action which promotes the happiness 
of mankind is in accordance with His will and receives his sanction. 
Thus the question is narrowed between us. Does the institution of 
slavery in these States destroy the happiness of mankind ? Your cities 
rest on it ; it builds your factories ; it freights your ships ; it whitens 
every sea with the sails of your commerce — employs the idle, feeds the 
hungry, clothes the naked. Commerce, civilization, and Christianity, 
go hand in hand, and their conjoint efforts receive their chief earthly 
impulse from this reviled institution. 

But you say, "I leave out of the consideration the happiness of the 
race enslaved." By no means. It is an important element of the moral 
argument. I point you to Hayti ; I point you to Jamaica ; I point 
you to Tunis; I point you among yourselves; compare the condition 
of the freed negroes morally, mentally, and physically, in those places, 
with the condition of the slaves here, and draw your own conclusions. 

In the general march of human progress there is no one interest of 
humanity which has advanced more rapidly than the institution of Afri- 
can slavery as it is in the southern States. It has stood the test of 



17 

every trial. In spite of the efforts of the anti- slavery party, so well cal- 
culated to retard its improvement, it has gone on improving and to 
improve, until its mission and its end shall be accomplished. Its mis- 
sion is to subdue the unbroken regions of the warm and fertile South, 
and its end is the happiness and civilization of the human race, includ- 
ing the race of the slave, in all respects. 

But, perhaps, some Senator, as I have heard already, appeals to his 
own heart for testimony. Now, Mr. President, for the impulses of the 
human heart, rightly instructed and educated, I have great sympathy 
and respect; but we are told that the human heart is "deceitful above 
all things, and desperately wicked;" and when it suffers itself to be 
driven to and fro by the whirlwind of passions, surely it is the most 
unwise and unsafe of all guides, and ought not to receive either sympa- 
thy or respect. 

History and experience prove that the negro has no where been found 
fit for any degree of civil liberty. His own good, as well as the good 
of the world, require that he should be guided and restrained. Yet the 
anti-slavery party weakly and wickedly attempt to force emancipation 
upon us. 

But, Mr. President, it may seem strange that a Senator from the 
South should seem to advocate the interests of the North. The truth 
is good for all sections ; and while I am not unwilling to contribute facts 
and arguments that may enable all to perform a common duty, I have a 
purpose beyond. I desire to show the wickedness and madness and 
folly of the anti-slavery party. I desire to point out its tendencies to 
the people of my section. I desire to re-assure the people of the South 
of its impregnable power. I desire to convince them of their capacity 
for independence. Sir, I am constrained, from deep conviction, to say, 
that unless this madness shall cease, the sooner she puts herself on that 
reliance the better for her, the better for civil liberty, and the better for 
mankind. 

I have spoken hypothetically. I have supposed that this party might 
be triumphant. I will-now say that it cannot be triumphant. I will 
say to the anti-slavery party, you cannot abolish slavery; no, not though 
you have opened to you all the treasures of Exeter Hall. There is but 
one way by which you can abolish slavery : that is to destroy your fac- 
tories, burn your mills, and cease consuming the products of slave labor, 
and induce England and other European powers to do the like ; deso- 
late your country, and with it some others ; and then you may. But 
you have not the nerve to adopt that course, and you cannot accomplish 
it in any other way. You may do that which is not so disastrous to us, 
but fatal to you. You may destroy our system of governments, and, 
my word for it, you will. Great Britain is not quite ready at this time 
to make direct and destructive war on our system of slavery. It turns 
out that the combined production of free and slave labor is insufficient 
for the supply of the civilized world. The factories of Great Britain, 
and her whole power and prosperity rest on it, and she knows it. She, 
therefore, cannot strike at it until she gets her own system of slavery 
fully developed, and then you may look for the blow. To show you 
that this is true, I will ask my friend to read an extract from British 
authority. 

Mr. Wigfall read as follows : 



18 

" ' The entire failure of a cotton crop,' [says Mr. Ashworth,] 'should it ever occur, 
would utterly destroy, and perhaps for ever, all the manufacturing prosperity we pos- 
sess; or, should the growth in any one year be only one million instead of three mil- 
lion bales, the manufacturing and trading classes would find themselves involved in 
losses which, in many cases, would amount to irretrievable ruin — millions of our 
countrymen would become deprived of employment and food — and, as a consequence, 
the v misfortune would involve this country in a series of calamities, politically, 
socially and commercially, such as cannot be contemplated without anxiety and 
dismay.' 

"These considerations strongly point to the necessity of encouraging the growth of 
cotton in the British colonies — in India, Australia and Africa — that we may escape 
the perils which seem to attach to our relying so exclusively for our supply, as we do 
at present, upon the products of American slavery." — London Quarterly Review, Jan- 
uary, 1860, p. 45. 

Mr. CHESNUT. Thus, Mr. President, it appears that while Eng- 
land is torturing her ingenuity to relieve herself of her dependence upon 
us; while she is resorting to every possible method to build up her own 
system of slavery in Africa, in Asia, in the West Indies, we find the 
anti-slavery party of America going hand in hand with her. We find 
the anti-slavery party of America doing all they can to destroy that 
which gives this country predominance and power. Senators, does it 
not occur to you that this party is, in effect, a foreign party ? It is a 
British party ; and if the people of the United States are so far stultified 
as to aid in its success, may God have mercy on their fatuity, for they 
know not what they do. 

Mr. President, I have said that in the prevailing misconception of 
our system of governments might be found one of the important causes 
of the present unsatisfactory condition of the country. As to the 
foundation and principles of government, we differ toto ccelo. One 
party in this country seems to hold that the Declaration of Independ- 
ence is the basis of the Constitution, and argue as if the Federal Govern- 
ment derived its powers from thatfamous instrument, and was organized 
for the express purpose of carrying them into effect. Strange as it may 
seem, still it is true, when the anti-slavery party generally come to speak 
of the powers and duties of the Government, in relation to the domestic 
affairs and social systems of the several States, they string their sophis- 
tical arguments on these abstract opinions. 

The purposes of the Declaration of Independence were clear and 
specific : which were to announce an existing fact ; and, in deference to 
the opinion of the world, to assign the reasons which induced and justi- 
fied that fact. Besides these, it had no other purposes. It is true, 
that the framers of that instrument saw fit to announce certain political 
and social dogmas, some of which are true and philosophic, while others, 
in the sense in which they seem to be understood and used by the anti- 
slavery party, are fantastic and false ; yet they seize on these last and 
present them as indubitable evidence of the correctness of that theory 
which they advocate. By what authority the dogmas of the Declaration 
of Independence are made the basis of the Constitution, or how they 
are imported as principles of the Government, I am unable to see. 
Those who take that ground must prove a fact in contravention of his- 
tory and in the face of well-established truth. 

The Constitution rests upon no such rickety basis. It arose out of 
the necessities and convenience of the States. It was formed for a 
practical purpose; which was, to institute a common Government for 
common purposes, practical and plainly apparent in the instrument 



19 

itself. Although the States were free and independent, still they were 
feeble, and not much respected by the other Powers of the earth. In 
order to preserve the liberty and independence which they had so lately 
won, and to enjoy peacefully the incidents flowing from such a condi- 
tion, it became necessary that they should unite more closely and con- 
centrate all their power, to be exercised in matters of foreign relations 
through a common agent. 

The exterior relations among themselves were embarrassing, and 
foreshadowed conflict and disaster. Hence, also, it became both con- 
venient and necessary, for the continuance of peace among them, that 
all matters of this kind should be regulated and controlled by the same 
common agent. In all matters arising under these two relations, it was 
supposed that the common agent could exercise the conjoined powers 
of the States more conveniently and beneficially than each State could 
for itself. To accomplish this, the Constitution was adopted which 
formed the Government. To carry into effect these objects was and is 
the main purpose of the Government. The interior and domestic affairs 
of the States were never intended to be affected by it, except in special 
cases provided, or in so far as the proper exercise of the powers granted 
to the common Government would necessarily do so. Equality of the 
States is the fundamental idea, and the relation which the State govern- 
ments and the Federal Government bear to each other is not that of 
inferior to subordinate, but as parts of one system, deriving their powers 
from the same source : namely, the people of the States severally. The 
people of each State has two governments, neither complete, inasmuch 
as it exercises a portion of its sovereign powers through one separately, 
and another portion conjointly, by agreement with other States through 
another government. The two together, in their appointed spheres, 
and within the limitations, exercise the sum of powers that constitutes a 
complete government. 

But sovereignty resides in neither of these governments. They exer- 
cise only the powers delegated to each respectively. It remains still 
plenary in each of the several States, which instituted both, precisely in 
the same manner and to the same extent as it did before the adoption 
of the Constitution. The people of each of the several States, therefore, 
can resume the powers delegated to either or both. This results from 
the sovereignty of the States and the nature of the compact between 
them. I use the words " States " and " people of the States," in this 
connection, in the same sense. 

From this doctrine it results that the Constitution rests on the will of 
the States ; and that the government formed by it is purely Federal — 
can have no other purposes, powers, or principles, than those derived 
from the Constitution itself; which are all delegated, defined, and 
limited. What the States intended and agreed to may there be found. 
What they did not intend and did not agree to cannot be imported ; 
and I feel a curiosity to see how any one of the Republican party can 
point out in the Constitution, as among the delegated, defined, and 
limited powers of the Government, their favorite and fantastic dogmas 
announced in the Declaration of Independence. 

There are yet others of the anti-slavery party, embracing in their 
number many able and distinguished men — chiefly those who have res- 
cued themselves from the wreck of the old Whig party, by uniting their 
fortunes with a more prospering cause. These, while they agree with 



20 

us as to the history of the Constitution, do nevertheless hold, that by 
ratifying it, the States surrendered their sovereignty, at least to the 
extent of the delegated powers, which are irrevocable ; that the Federal 
Government is that of a single nation, extending over all the people of 
the United States as a single community, united socially, and not politi- 
cally, as States ; that the Government therefore is national and not 
Federal; that it is the exclusive judge of the extent of its own powers, 
and has the right by force of arms to exact obedience to such interpre- 
tation from the States who made it. They deny that the several States 
who are the custodians of the reserved, as the Federal Government is 
of the delegated powers, have any right to judge of the infractions of 
the Constitution, and the mode and measure of redress. If I had time 
I would go into a complete and full refutation of all these fallacies; but 
it is not now in the line of my purpose to argue them. Perhaps it may 
become proper on another occasion. 

These doctrines break down all the barriers of the Constitution, and 
prostrate the States, consolidate the Government, and enable it, by 
construction, to absorb all of the reserved powers. Instead of a Federal 
Government, as inteuded for specific purposes, with its powers enumer- 
ated, and strictly limited, it becomes a Government for any and every 
purpose that a majority may desire. In fact, its purpose and character 
being entirely changed, it is a mighty and odious despotism ; the meanest 
and most hateful of all — a vulgar despotism of mere numbers. Beneath 
the incubus of such a monster civil liberty would die in a day. 

The theory which holds that the dogmas of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence are the principles and powers of the Government, and the 
theory which consolidates the Government, which holds that we are 
united socially as one people, and therefore may rightfully intermeddle 
with each others' concerns, and by construction would permit majorities 
to extend the action of the Government beyond the limits defined by 
the Constitution, leave the amplest scope for the violent clashing of all 
those adverse opinions pertaining solely to the social system and domes- 
tic affairs of the several States, — the shock of which now shakes the 
Confederacy from center to circumference ; whereas the true view would 
confine all conflicts to political questions arising under the Constitution, 
and legitimately within the sphere of the common Government. 

If the people of New England and Ohio and other States could but 
understand the true relations of the States to each other, and of the 
Federal Government to the States ; that outside of the purposes of 
the Government, and beyond the powers expressly enumerated in the 
Constitution, they are, in fact, as foreign to each other as are Great 
Britain and France ; and would demean themselves in accordance with 
the logical results of such a belief, peace might be restored, and our 
system of governments, like the great system above, move harmoniously 
on, yielding daily light and life and happiness for generations to come. 
But this may not be. 

The idea' that there exists an "irrepressible conflict" between the 
two systems of labor prevailing in the States, is fanciful and superficial. 
No such conflict exists. On the contrary, the two systems mutually aid 
each Other. There is, however, a conflict — a conflict of ideas irrecon- 
cilable. The opinions of those who give life and energy to the anti- 
slavery party touching government, society, the relations of man to both 
and to each other, are radical and revolutionary. If these prevail, 



21 

there can be no peace, North or South ; for they are bred in confusion, 
and will develop anarchy. These gentlemen seem to believe that Gov- 
ernment may be improvised — that it is a sort of machinery which is 
invented, can be patented, and may be made in the same mould to suit 
the customers of every clime, whether of Asia, Africa, Europe or 
America. They argue as if society was the artificial, and not the 
natural state of man. Hence, they speak of his natural rights as mat- 
ters outside of, and in antagonism to, the claims of society, and of 
which society deprives him. 

According to this theory, his relation to society and government is 
naturally one of war. Thus they would lay the foundations of govern- 
ment in anarchy. This fatal error arises, too, out of the untenable 
postulate that all men, under all governments, are naturally and equally 
entitled to liberty, without reference to the well-being of society or to 
their own fitness to enjoy and preserve it. Thus, in the face of history, 
in the face of nature, and in contravention to the every day experience 
of the world, they hold "that all men are created equal : that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Let us examine this 
with impartial minds. Let us see whether these rights are original, 
absolute, and unlimited, or qualified, relative, and subordinate. That 
all men are not created equal, especially the negro, as compared with 
the white man, I think our opponents begin to see, and are partially 
inclined to admit. I draw this inference from certain passages in the 
speeches of the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Trumbull] and the Senator 
from New York, [Mr. Seward.] 

First, the Senator from Illinois holds this language in a speech which 
he delivered here early in the session ; he confesses the inequality of the 
races, in my judgment : 

"I know that there is a distinction between these two races, because the Almighty 
himself has marked it on their very faces, and, in my judgment, man cannot, by 
legislation or otherwise, produce perfect equality between these races." 

The inference I draw from that is, that the Senator from Illinois 
begins to see, and is inclined to admit, that the African is not the equal 
of the white man. I also quote from the Senator from New York, a 
passage, which I think points to the same conclusion. He says : 

"Suppose we had the power to change your social system: what warrant have 
you for supposing that we should carry negro equality among you? We know, and 
would show yon, if you will only give heed, that the equality which our system of 
labor works out is the equality of the white man." 

In the South the equality of the white man is already established. 
It is not the equality of the negro that the system works out. I infer 
from that, the Senator from New York begins to see the inequality of 
the races, and is inclined to admit it. I therefore pass over that sub- 
ject; take it for granted that mankind will hold the idea that all races 
are not equal, because the fact stares them in the face. We have only 
to make profert. Bring one of each into court, and who acknowledges 
the equality ? No one. 

That all men are endowed with life is unquestionable ; but whether 
it may not be rightfully taken away, without the consent of its posses- 
sor, is another question. This goes to the root of society. Its well- 
being, its preservation, upon which the existence and development of 



22 

the human race depend, often require that it should be done. Hence 
we see that, in every age, in all countries, and under every form of gov- 
ernment, it has been done. Thus we have the testimony of all ages 
and all mankind that even this precious boon may become rightfully 
aliened or taken away, and is made subservient to the safety and well- 
being of society. 

When gentlemen affirm this inalienable right to liberty, what do they 
mean ? Do they predicate this right of man in a condition of absolute 
solitude, and disconnected from human society and government ? If 
they do this, we can have no argument with them, for they speak of a 
condition in which man has never been found in history, and in which 
he cannot exist. Their argument, therefore, must be inconsequential 
and futile. But if they affirm this as a natural right in a political con- 
dition, and thus speak of civil liberty, the assumption is no less absurd. 
The idea of civil liberty is complex. It embraces not only the liberty 
of the individual, but also the civil and political idea, It comprehends 
grants and restrictions — the rights and powers of States, as well as the 
rights and immunities of the citizen. In fact, the liberty of the citizen 
springs out of, and is wholly dependent on, constitution and govern- 
ment. To assert, therefore, that liberty thus derived and thus sustained 
is an original, independent endowment, which cannot be aliened or 
rightfully taken away, is to assert an absurdity. 

We hold to the teaching of the great Stagyrite, that as the human 
race cannot exist, continue, or develop without society, nor society 
without government, therefore the political, including the social, is the 
natural condition of man. He is never otherwise found. The indi- 
vidual, therefore, must be subordinate to the social, and government 
may rightfully exercise just so much power as, and no more than, may 
be necessary to protect society against external dangers and internal 
violence and injury. And the citizen ought to possess as much liberty 
as he is fit to enjoy, and as may be consistent with the well-being of the 
State. 

I will ask leave here to read an extract from Mr. Calhoun, which, 
pursuing the idea of Aristotle, presents the question so comprehensively, 
yet so succinctly and clearly, that I will adopt it : 

"It follows from all this that the quantum of power on the part of the Government, 
and of liberty on the part of individuals, instead of being equal in all cases, must 
necessarily be very unequal among different people, according to their different con- 
ditions. For, just in proportion as a people are ignorant, stupid, debased, corrupt, 
exposed to violence within and danger from without, the power necessary for Gov- 
ernment to possess* in order to preserve society against anarchy and destruction, 
becomes greater and greater, and individual liberty less and less, until the lowest 
condition is reached — when absolute and despotic power becomes necessary on the 
part of the Government, and individual liberty extinct. So, on the contrary, just as 
a people rise in the scale of intelligence, virtue and patriotism, and the more per- 
fectly they become acquainted with the nature of Government, the ends for which it 
was ordered, and how it ought to be administered, and the less the tendency to vio- 
lence and disorder within and danger from abroad, the power necessary for Govern- 
ment becomes less and less, and individual liberty greater and greater. Instead, 
then, of all men having the same right to liberty and equality, as is claimed by those 
who hold that they are all born free and equal, liberty is the noble and highest reward 
bestowed on mental and moral development, combined with favorable circumstances. 
Instead, then, of liberty and equality being born with men, instead of all men and all 
classes and descriptions being equally entitled to them, they arc high prizes to be 
won, and are in their most perfect state not only the highest reward that can be 
bestowed on our race, but the most difficult to be won, and when won, the most dif- 
ficult to be preserved." 



23 

Mr. CHESNUT. Here, Mr. President, is a theory of government 
comprehensive and just ; the only theory upon which any free Govern- 
ment can permanently maintain liberty. It is the basis of that system 
of freedom which prevails in these States. It is the same policy which 
makes England a great and free country ; it is the system on which the 
British constitution rests, and no other system can ever be permanent, 
exist where it will. 

But again : when gentlemen affirm a right to the pursuit of happiness 
as an original endowment, which cannot be alienated or rightfully taken 
away, what do they mean ? Do they mean to assert that every man 
may, at his will, pursue his notion of happiness without restraint of 
human law, or regard to the well-being of society ? If so, where will 
it lead ? Men differ often in their ideas of happiness! The happiness 
of many, it is true, consists in pursuit of noble, useful, and innocent em- 
ployments. Such have a right to pursue them. But the happiness of 
some men consists in turbulence and brutality ; some in carnage ; others 
love theft ; some rejoice in arson, while others seek happiness in the bold 
walks of highway plunder; while some, again, revel in revenge, treason 
and murder. Ay, pursue your happiness, gentlemen all, without 
restraint of human law. You but exercise a God-given right. Suggest- 
ive theory ! Glorious and inciting doctrine for the race of Browns, with 
pike, and torch, and flaming hate ! 

But, gentlemen, you do not mean this. You cannot. You are com- 
pelled to take these rights with our interpretation, and with the limita- 
tions aud restraints which the good of society and human law impose. 
But if you do this, you are honestly bound to cease to produce them in 
proof and reproof against us. 

Mr. President, a notable experiment of these principles of unqualified 
"liberty, fraternity, and equality," has been tried in the world. We 
have seen Constitution and Government improvised by philosophy, but 
"the Constitution would not walk." Philosophers could not make the 
men to live under it. These men required a Government growing out 
of their necessities and adapted to their peculiar wants and capacities. 
So they trampled on the pearl of philosophy, and soon turned to rend 
the philosophers. Thus will it ever be. The Government must grow 
and be suited to the people. With these wild ideas the men of France, 
no doubt, thought themselves very happy for a little while, All barriers, 
all nationalities, all restrictions were broken down — the world was one. 
Le genre humain was the only bond, and le genre hum-din of all races, 
colors, classes, and costumes, showed themselves very joyous — almost 
incontinent — at a feast of pikes. They were all brothers, lead on by 
Anacharsis Clootz. Rotable Anacharsis ! Glorious Clootz ! — type of 
man which is to be seen again in America. Happy men ! for they were 
all free and equal, and fraternized. But how long did this last ? Again 
we see them, and this time mixed. with women, in long queues, swinging 
to and fro from the doors of all the baker's shops in the city, crying 
" Bread or blood !" Was such cry ever heard in American city ? How 
ominous ! 

Liberty and equality cannot always feast on pikes and fraternity. 
Henceforth fraternity disappears ; but, happy men, they are still free 
and equal ; free at least to drink each other's blood, and equal in dia- 
bolical atrocity. And is this all that liberty, fraternity, and equality 
can accomplish ? Have they, then, no better hope ? Where now is the 



24 

heaven-born guide and chastener of man's savage heart, pure religion ? 
Can not these new-born principles do something for that ? Yes ; do 
we not see them bring the painted courtesan — symbol of divine reason — 
which they parade and hopefully worship ? Happy men ! Are they 
not still free and equal ? Ah, but they have not witnessed the new 
type — symbol of the anti-slavery God, emblem of murder and treason — 
the gallows, now higher and holier than the cross. 

The truth must not be blinked — like causes will produce like effects. 
Are not these same ideas of unqualified liberty, fraternity and equality, 
communism, agrarianism and infidelity, sown sedulously and thick 
throughout the literature and teachings and preachings of the anti-sla- 
vary party of the North ? You may depend upon it, gentlemen, these 
seeds will spring up and bear bitter fruit for you. 

I cannot erase from my mind the impressions made by events and the 
condition of things around me. I believe that the active, characteristic 
principles of the Republican party of this day in America are identical 
with the Red Republicanism of France. Here it has changed its com- 
plexion. " It has blacked its face," that is all. If these ideas of which 
we have been speaking are pressed into action — nay, more, if they be 
not speedily arrested and made to succumb, civil liberty dies when they 
triumph, and our system of governments end. Then, gentlemen, too 
late will come your lamentations — as come they surely will. You will 
be held as "false threnodists of false liberty — hollow chanters over the 
ashes of a dead Republic," destroyed by yourselves. 

In such an event I will feel some consolation, arising from the belief 
that we have done our duty, and from a deep conviction that the South, 
nnder wise counsel and firm action, can hold these principles at bay; 
that she will weather the storm, and be able to reconstruct the temple 
of her safety on a firm and enduring basis. 



Morphy & Co. Bookseller/, Publishers, Printers, and Stationer*, 1S2 Baltimore street, Baltimore. 



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